Motherboard Tray

One feature that is slowly becoming standardized in many cases is a removable motherboard tray. It makes replacing motherboards and add-on cards much easier when the components that you want to work with can be taken out of the rest of the chassis.

We were disappointed to see the lack of a removable tray with the Xpider II being a gaming chassis. Most gamers like to swap out their old outdated hardware for the latest in technology to keep up with the latest in games, and a removable tray would have been a big hit with them.




Click to enlarge.


The tray does have plenty of machined holes to mount various types of boards, though this is mainly an ATX case. And the Xpider II makes use of snap-on stand-offs to mount the motherboard. Again, screws are required, and are provided, but we would like to see Chenbro move to a more tool-free design with its products.

Expansion Installation
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  • Staples - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Very ugly design. It certainly will not be my next case.
  • kmmatney - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Can't say that I've ever found a removable motherboard tray very useful. Just gives more parts to rattle and weakens the structure. You certainly don't need it to swap out components.
  • shuttleboi - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Do Anandtech reviewers have a problem with aesthetics or something? Why do they keep reviewing these really butt-ugly cases? How about something (e.g. from Lian-Li or Coolermaster) that isn't completely repulsive?
  • Budman - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    " We test it with all the same PSU so that the noise comparisons are all the same.

    Kristopher "

    that may be good for mobo/cpu tests but you're reviewing a CASE,you just cant pick & chose the parts you like.

    The case should be reviewed as is just like anybody who's going to go buy it,not everybody's going to have a spare psu handy.

    And just like the other guy said it's a freaking Fortron 350 watter great psu.
    very bad ideal to swap out the psu,when you buy it will it come with that other psu? NO . so if you're going to review do it as it will come from the store.
  • Sonic587 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    "Installation of all components took no more than 15 minutes and since the Chenbro threw in a 350W power supply, a few minutes were shaved off that total installation time. We did swap out that power supply with our own test bed unit, the OCZ 520W PowerStream, for our benchmarks."

    Excuse me if I missed something, and ignore this if I did, but they just "threw in" a 350W power supply? That's a Fortron FSP350-60PN. A very high quality PSU that could handle almost any system out there today. I think there should be some credit to Chenbro for choosing a quality component that is so often ignored.

    That said, I agree it is 110% fugly.

  • BUBKA - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    I heard it was optimized to play spiderman 2 and benches 3% faster
  • KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    We test it with all the same PSU so that the noise comparisons are all the same.

    Kristopher
  • Degrador - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Yep, I'm with #1. Fugly.
  • Monkeydonutstick - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Super Stupid
  • Budman - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Why in the hell would you go to all the trouble of reviewing a case but then swap out the PSU???

    You should have tested it with the PSU it came with.

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